Iga Swiatek takes her third title in the last four years The red sand of the French Open.
She won one last September Championship on the hard courts of the US Open for the first time. This is also the rubber used at the Australian Open, where she made it to the semifinals.
And what about grass pitches? Wimbledon, which starts on Monday, was her least successful Grand Slam Tournament until now. Swiatek is easy 5-3 at the All England Club – Compare that to their 28-2 record at Roland Garros, for example – and those three defeats came in the first, third and fourth rounds.
Swiatek that has been since April 2022 in 1st placegave a glimpse of how she views her game on grass when asked in Paris this month if reaching the final stages of a Major was still a big deal for her.
“Well, it depends, because … if I made it to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, I would be over the moon,” Swiatek replied, “and I wouldn’t believe I’m at that point.”
While other players may agree with that assessment, after her game against Swiatek in Paris this year, Claire Liu, an American who is in the top 100 – “I’d say she’s good on pretty much any surface” – is the theme of the Playing The 22-year-old from Poland evokes certain feelings at the sight of the smooth green stuff.
Two words she repeats when talking about weed: “uncomfortable” and “challenging.”
It’s a complete contrast to how she feels on sand.
And yet we mustn’t forget: Swiatek were junior champions at Wimbledon in 2018, so it’s not a totally alien surface or environment.
Nevertheless, she emphasizes: “It’s sometimes more difficult on grass and I still have a lot to learn.”
“It just feels like you’re walking on the court and not playing like you ‘should,'” she said, making air quotes with her fingers, “or like you ‘could,’ you know? So this thing increases the pressure.”
Everything that makes them so good on clay or hard courts, it seems, should also translate well on grass.
your big forehand. The way she can defend so well. And above all, the way Swiatek finds her way in a match, recognizes her opponent’s weaknesses and counters her own with small corrections here and there.
Certainly there are other women who have already shown that they can do well on grass and at Wimbledon. player like 2022 champion Elena RybakinaSecond of the year 2022, Ons Jabeur, two-time winner Petra Kvitova, Semifinalist 2021 Aryna Sabalenka.
But there aren’t many people who will doubt that Swiatek will eventually find a solution.
“It’s the power,” said Agnieszka Radwanska, who finished second to Serena Williams at the All England Club in 2012 and has been the only Pole to reach the singles final there for the past 85 years.
“There are other players who hit the ball very hard,” Radwanska said, before explaining that Swiatek’s strong topspin gives her shots a greater chance of landing more evenly, as opposed to the flat shots that result in more misses “at the fence ” to lead.
“That’s the difference,” Radwanska said. “A big difference.”
After watching her beat Karolina Muchova in three sets in the Roland Garros final, French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said she believes Swiatek has what it takes to succeed at the All England Club.
“She might need to make an adjustment or two, maybe technically or in her game,” said Mauresmo, a former No. 1 who won Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2006, “but I don’t understand why.” Her consistency, her physical and of course mental abilities — how she fights and how she causes a lot of trouble for the other girls — wouldn’t get her any breakthrough there.”
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
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